Norwell police station still on track

The town awarded the contractor for the Washington Street police station a 40-day extension on the project deadline, but project managers reported last week that construction was still on schedule.

Lincoln, R.I.-based Mill City Construction initially asked the town for $35,000 in damages last month to offset the costs of the delays to excavation caused by severe winter weather and problems with National Grid, said project manager Richard Pomroy, of the town’s project management firm Pomroy Associates.

“The contractor was looking for $35,000 in damages and they took that money off table,” Pomroy said. “It was a major win for us and we were able to hold off any additional costs to the town.”

Pomroy told selectmen at a June 11 meeting that Mill City was not entitled to financial damages because it had violated certain terms of its contract. The construction company reportedly moved outside of the approved phasing plan in order to work around weather delays, which Pomroy said voided their claim to damages.

The 40-day extension provides a safeguard to the contractor if it cannot hold to its contracted completion deadline, according to Pomry. If the contractor cannot complete the project within the 10-14 month contracted period, the town could be eligible for liquid damages.

Mill City broke ground on the $4.8 million police station project, which is adjacent to the fire station at 300 Washington Street, in November 2013. Although construction and site work began just before the winter set in, Pomroy said the contractor was prepared to push through with construction, despite the weather. A worse-than-expected winter and National Grid’s delays in bringing in the appropriate electrical equipment needed to power the police station translated to construction delays.

“We are still planning to finish around November or December if everything stays on track,” said Taylor MacDonald, a project manager with Pomroy Associates. “But the schedule is running tight.”

MacDonald said all of the site – or excavation – work is complete and that the wood framing of the building would be completed by the end of next week. Over the next two-to-three months, the contractor will get the building weather tight, allowing for interior work to begin.

“The plus side of it is that all of our site work is done, and we don’t have to worry about getting into the winter again,” Pomroy said.

Pomroy and MacDonald agreed that construction was progressing at the site and said tensions with the contractor had subsided.

“I think we had a rocky start,” Pomroy said. “With Mill City, it took them some time to understand how things work with regards to Massachusetts construction and working with an arch and an owner’s project manager, but I think over the last several months things have improved immensely. I think it’s made a big difference.”